Semantics
relation to culture and ways of interpreting the world
terms for kinship (OE ego-oriented, nuclear family, little distinction beyond nuclear family, no separate terms for marriage relationship, distinction between paternal and maternal relatives)
color (infrequent use of terms for hue, frenquent reference saturation, lightness, luster, scintillation)
semantic change: generalization and narrowing, amelioration and pejoration, strengthening and weakening, shift in stylistic level, shift in denotation
Dialects
Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon, Kentish; phonological differences; north lost inflectional endings earlier than the south; heavier use of diphthongs and extensive palatalization of velar consonants in West Saxon areas
Literature
literacy among the clergy, use of vellum, hand copying, command of Latin, English and Irish/Gaelic by the literate, anonymity of texts, religious literature, translations from Latin; prose: King Alfred's translations of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, Boethius's Consolations of Philosophy, biblical translations, compilation of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Aelfric (955-1020): sermons, homilies, saints' lives; Wulfstan (d. 1023): Sermon to the English; verse, four-stress alliterative line with caesura (alliteration determined by first stressed word in second half-line, formulaic style, recurring images (eagle, wolf, ice, snow), kennings (e.g. swan-road); earliest verse: Caedmon's hymn late 7th c., epic: Beowulf, elegies: The Wanderer, The Seafarer.
Middle English
Middle English
French influence
Scandinavian influence
loss of inflections
less free in word order
loss of grammatical gender
more phonetic spelling
final -e pronounced, as well as all consonants
resurrection of English in 13th and 14th c.
dialects: Northern, Midland, Southern, Kentish
dominance of London dialect (East Midland)
Middle English Subperiods
1066-1204 Decline of English
Norman invasion (1066), French conquest and unification of England; Norman = North-man, descendants of Danes, spoke French influenced by Germanic dialect
William in full control of England within ten years
death of many Anglo-Saxon nobles
end of internal conflicts and Viking invasions; control of the Welsh
Frenchmen in all high offices
Anglo Saxon Chronicle written until 1154
imposition of feudal system, vassalage, peasants bound to the land
increase in dialectal differences
kings of England spoke French, took French wives and lived mostly in France, French-speaking court
Henry II Plantagenet (r. 1154-1189), married to Eleanor of Aquitaine, father of Richard I, the Lionheart (r. 1189-1199) and John Lackland
assassination of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket in 1170
lack of prestige of English; Latin was written language of the Church and secular documents; Scandinavian still spoken in the Danelaw, Celtic languages prevailed in Wales and Scotland
development of bilingualism among Norman officials, supervisors, some marriages of French and English, bilingual children
examples of French words: tax, estate, trouble, duty, pay, table, boil, serve, roast, dine, religion, savior; pray, trinity
very little written English from this period